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Readings and musings

Notes on Change by Design by Tim Brown

8/23/2012

1 Comment

 
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I've been getting deep into design thinking and heard the book Change by Design by Tim Brown mentioned repeatedly, so I figured I'd check it out. Tim Brown is the CEO of the design firm IDEO, which, along with the Stanford d.school, really spearheaded a lot of the design thinking movement.

I found the book to be a great overview of DT and recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with the subject. I personally would've wished for the book to spend more time on specific techniques and less on the broader trends and high-level concepts since most of those are already familiar. I suppose there wasn't a lot of depth on the techniques because this stuff is much better learned by doing rather than reading. I did find the copious number of real-world examples where DT made a difference to be interesting.

Below are my main takeaways from the book that go beyond what I learned before or present the material from a different perspective.

Intro
  • Integrating human POV with technical
  • Design as hub of wheel not link in chain
  • Human centered not tech centered
  • Design thinking applied to many new industries and problems
  • Mind maps not tables of contents (linear)

Part 1 what is design thinking

Ch 1 dt is about more than style
  • IDEO work for Shimano
  • Interviewed many areas of bicycling customers
  • Created coasting bikes and better retail strategy

3 spaces of innovation
  • No one best way
  • Overlapping spaces
  • 1. Inspiration
  • 2. Ideation
  • 3. Implementation
  • Iterative, nonlinear, exploratory
  • Fail early to succeed sooner
  • Feels chaotic but makes sense by end

  • Willing embrace of constraints actually helps
  • Sometimes constraints conflict; that's ok
  • Evaluate constraints on 3 overlapping criteria 
  • 1. Feasibility: functionally possible
  • 2. Viability: sustainable as biz
  • 3. Desirability: makes sense to ppl
  • Find harmonious balance
  • Businesses sometimes focus only on what fits in biz model (incremental improvement)
  • DT uses project not problem
  • Project has specific goal and beginning, middle, and end and constraints

The brief
  • Like scientific hypothesis not algorithm 
  • Starting point
  • Mental constraints by which to begin
  • Benchmarks to measure progress
  • Set of objectives to be realized, Price point, tech, mkt segment
  • Need right balance between constraints and broadness in brief

  • Interdisciplinary team
  • T shaped people

Creative culture and environment
  • Physical space giving permission
  • Skunkworks
  • Mattel
  • Separate project rooms
  • Visibility of project materials
  • Wiki
  • Flexibility in space
  • DT needs to move upstream

Ch 2 converting needs into demand or putting ppl first
  • Asking ppl what want doesn't work
  • Articulate latent needs
  • Insight, observation, empathy

Insight
  • Learning from lives of others
  • Myriad thoughtless acts of ppl
  • Actual behaviors give clues
  • Watch what ppl don't do or say

Observation
  • Intense field work
  • Find extreme users, OCD ppl
  • Research sponsored by companies

Empathy
  • translate observations into insights
  • Hospital patient er experience
  • Emotional understanding
  • Video ethnography, computer logging
  • Understand links between ppl

Consumers as part of design team
  • Crowd-sourced design
  • participatory design teams
  • User generated content
  • Collaboration between creators and consumers

Ch 3 a mental matrix or these ppl have no process
  • Getting client to come backstage

Convergent and divergent thinking
  • To have a good idea you must first have many ideas
  • Methodical experimentation
  • Ideas should not be favored based on who came up with them
  • Let ideas create buzz and a following
  • Bottom up experimentation
  • Propagate ideas up
  • Not just suggestion box
  • Must gain org support

Brainstorming
  • Rules
  • Build on ideas of others
  • Write rules on walls
  • Dedicate rooms for it

Visual thinking
  • Drawing practice
  • Draw to express ideas and options
  • Drawing forces decisions
  • Post it notes best tools for convergent thinking
  • Getting consensus through butterfly test
  • Vote putting butterflies on post it's
  • Deadlines turn options into decisions
  • Exploring opposing ideas
  • Complexity most reliable source of ideas

Ch 4 building to think or the power of prototyping
  • Kids build
  • Prototypes all over kids rooms
  • Physical to abstract and back cycles
  • Thinking with your hands

Quick and dirty
  • Don't over invest in one prototype
  • Goal is just learning and understanding
  • Skits
  • Foam core
  • Storyboards in film
  • Keeps ppl at the center
  • Describing customer journey
 
Acting out
  • Service innovation
  • Kids are best role models
  • Role-playing
  • Tell users to add post it's to ur prototypes
  • Improv acting techniques
  • Takes some confidence and open-mindedness

Prototyping in the wild

DT for company reorg
  • IDEO's own redesign through prototypes
  • Prototypes slow us down to speed us up
  • Must make own prototype instead of outsourcing
  • Start with quick cycle like 1 day to first prototype
 
Ch 5 returning to the surface or the design of experiences
  • Not just fulfilling function but having an experience
  • Mayo Clinic Spark Lab design studio testing new provider experiences
  • Changing behavior hard; offer new behavior

Experience blueprint
  • Specs for interaction
  • Described emotive elements of journey through time and space

Ch 6 spreading the message or the power of storytelling
  • Cool Biz movement in Japan
  • Used compelling story to spread word
  • Stories give ideas meaning

Designing in fourth dimension
  • Time
  • Interaction design
  • Designing verbs and stories

Stories as product
  • Meme
  • Turn audience into storytellers themselves

Design challenge
  • Challenge between rival teams
  • X-Prize

Part 2 where do we go from here

Ch 7 design thinking meets the corporation or teaching to fish
  • Steelcase
  • Dedicated spaces
  • Workshops

Ch 8 new social contract or we're all In this together
  • Convos with customers

Blurring between products and services
  • All becoming experiences
  • How might we... (HWM)
  • TSA redesign

Sustainability

Ch 9 design activism or inspiring solutions with great potential
  • Designing for extreme needs
  • Acumen Fund
  • Social enterprise
  • Architecture for Humanity

Ch 10 designing tomorrow today
  • Designing a life
  • Observe the ordinary
  • Carry a sketchpad and draw sketches

1 Comment
plastic totes link
9/4/2013 07:13:41 pm

I read this note on ‘Change by Design’ by Tim Brown. It was new information to me that he was the CEO of the design firm IDEO. I think this notes has really conveyed me a lot of information about what subject of designing the book covers.

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